4 ms·

i've also heard that JET experiences were all over the map. for example, i know one guy who spent most of his time cleaning. on a slightly different topic, do

by noodle 16y ago

i've also heard that JET experiences were all over the map. for example, i know one guy who spent most of his time cleaning. on a slightly different topic, do you have any thoughts on the availability of non-teaching positions for people who don't have business fluency? i know there are some, but the bulk of jobs for foreigners are clearly in language and cultural instruction.

patio11 16y ago
That actually isn't correct: the bulk of jobs for foreigners are in factories. Assuming we scope this to "licit jobs a middle class American would actually consider doing", illiteracy is about as big a barrier to gainful professional employment as one would expect. The exceptions are English teaching, service work at particular bars/etc, and doing weddings as a fake minister (orders of magnitude rarer than teaching). In particular, so help me, I was ready to kill interviewees at a Japanese megacorp who expected to be placed as engineers despite total inability to read a design document or discuss technical topics. ("No! It is not kawaii that you cannot describe what the black boarded algorithm does in Japanese. No! Knowing the word "kawaii" is not worth points on your application.")
- noodle 16y ago
  good point, i forgot about the factory work. although, thats the case for most first world countries, really. i imagine there's a good bit of fanboy culture creep in any job that allows foreign applications. does a megacorp software position not require N1?
  - patio11 16y ago
    I only officially have a 2kyuu, although that is mostly a function of never organizing myself to take the 1kyuu exam. Our company required only "advanced proficiency in written and oral Japanese", and due to process defects that I will not go into, that filter was not rigorously applied until frustratingly late in the pipeline in some cases. I know of some engineers in Tokyo who I would guess have actual ability closer to "exactly sufficient to pass 2kyuu". Never met anyone below that working in a professional capacity.
    - pwim 16y ago
      Hmm...I would say my experience has been the opposite, and in Tokyo, 2kyuu is rather closer to the high end of the spectrum. When I first came to Japan, I basically didn't speak any Japanese, but managed to get a job as a software developer in Tokyo. There are lots of companies (especially in the financial sector) that value English over Japanese here.
- aphexairlines 16y ago
  Or you could work for an American company in Japan where they work in English. For those who want to write software in the middle of Shibuya, my team and a couple others at Amazon are hiring :)
  - noodle 16y ago
    the difficulty there (as it relates to this article, at least) is whether or not they'll sponsor someone's visa. it seemed difficult for a friend of mine to find something that would.
rdouble 16y ago
If you are a desk jockey, the best jobs in Japan are with foreign financial firms like Morgan Stanley. They pay a lot, you don't need to know Japanese, they hook you up with housing, you don't have crazy Japanese hours or crazy American finance hours, and the hiring standards are a lot looser than their US or UK equivalents.

by noodle 16y ago

patio11 16y ago

That actually isn't correct: the bulk of jobs for foreigners are in factories. Assuming we scope this to "licit jobs a middle class American would actually consider doing", illiteracy is about as big a barrier to gainful professional employment as one would expect. The exceptions are English teaching, service work at particular bars/etc, and doing weddings as a fake minister (orders of magnitude rarer than teaching). In particular, so help me, I was ready to kill interviewees at a Japanese megacorp who expected to be placed as engineers despite total inability to read a design document or discuss technical topics. ("No! It is not kawaii that you cannot describe what the black boarded algorithm does in Japanese. No! Knowing the word "kawaii" is not worth points on your application.")

noodle 16y ago
good point, i forgot about the factory work. although, thats the case for most first world countries, really. i imagine there's a good bit of fanboy culture creep in any job that allows foreign applications. does a megacorp software position not require N1?
- patio11 16y ago
  I only officially have a 2kyuu, although that is mostly a function of never organizing myself to take the 1kyuu exam. Our company required only "advanced proficiency in written and oral Japanese", and due to process defects that I will not go into, that filter was not rigorously applied until frustratingly late in the pipeline in some cases. I know of some engineers in Tokyo who I would guess have actual ability closer to "exactly sufficient to pass 2kyuu". Never met anyone below that working in a professional capacity.
  - pwim 16y ago
    Hmm...I would say my experience has been the opposite, and in Tokyo, 2kyuu is rather closer to the high end of the spectrum. When I first came to Japan, I basically didn't speak any Japanese, but managed to get a job as a software developer in Tokyo. There are lots of companies (especially in the financial sector) that value English over Japanese here.
aphexairlines 16y ago
Or you could work for an American company in Japan where they work in English. For those who want to write software in the middle of Shibuya, my team and a couple others at Amazon are hiring :)
- noodle 16y ago
  the difficulty there (as it relates to this article, at least) is whether or not they'll sponsor someone's visa. it seemed difficult for a friend of mine to find something that would.

rdouble 16y ago

If you are a desk jockey, the best jobs in Japan are with foreign financial firms like Morgan Stanley. They pay a lot, you don't need to know Japanese, they hook you up with housing, you don't have crazy Japanese hours or crazy American finance hours, and the hiring standards are a lot looser than their US or UK equivalents.